Breast tomosynthesis is a three-dimensional imaging technology in which images of a stationary compressed breast are acquired at multiple angles during a short scan. The images are organized as a series of thin high-resolution slices that can be displayed individually or in a dynamic ciné mode. Breast tomosynthesis systems are similar to mammography systems except that the x-ray source is moved to a variety of different imaging positions during image acquisition. Reconstructed tomosynthesis slices advantageously reduce or eliminate problems caused by tissue overlap and structure noise in single slice two-dimensional mammography imaging. Digital tomosynthesis, which combines digital image capture and processing with simple tube/detector motion as used in computed tomography (CT) but over a smaller rotational angle than that used in CT, offers the additional possible advantages of reduced breast compression, improved diagnostic and screening accuracy, fewer recalls, and 3D lesion localization. However, movement of the x-ray source introduces some technological complications.
Typical tomosynthesis systems are arranged to smoothly and continuously traverse a path during an image scan because stop-and-start scanning procedures tend to reduce image quality. The x-ray source is activated for an exposure time of about 10 ms to 100 ms as the x-ray source moves into each of several imaging locations in the imaging path, and exposure is repeated with a cycle period of 200 ms to 2 seconds. After each exposure the x-ray source is deactivated. As the x-ray source moves between imaging locations the contents of the digital image detector are read out and stored. There is a minimum time period associated with reading the image from the digital detector, and the overall speed of the tomosynthesis scan is determined by the minimum time period for detector read, the exposure time at each location and the number of exposures. As the x-ray source is continuously moved through space during each exposure period in a tomosynthesis system the focal spot also moves. The resultant focal spot movement causes image blurring and reduces diagnostic accuracy.